The City Commission last year rejected a proposal to put his name on a major roadway, but now it will reconsider.
By Times Staff Writer
Published June 8, 2004
LARGO - Next week, city leaders plan to revisit renaming a street after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The City Commission last year rejected plans to rename a major street after King, and leaders decided to pursue a memorial in Largo Central Park instead. But this year, Mayor Bob Jackson proposed renaming Greenwood Avenue after King to match the street's name to the north, in Clearwater.
Clearwater changed its portion of Greenwood Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in 2002. Changing the residential street's name in Largo, and in unincorporated county nearby, is a logical step, Jackson said.
"It doesn't make sense to stop and go," he said. "We have too many streets in this county that stop at one (name) and end up at another."
The commission is expected to vote June 15 on a resolution to rename the street from Belleair Road to Jasper Street. But that's only the first step in the process.
Because a good portion of the quarter-mile street south of Clearwater is in unincorporated county, the Pinellas County Commission would have to approve the plan as well, according to a city staff report.
Last year, commissioners considered renaming a street but could not agree on which one to rename.
Many communities pick streets in neighborhoods that are predominantly black, but Largo, whose population is 2 percent black, has no such neighborhoods.
The neighboring community of unincorporated Ridgecrest, which is mostly black, suggested Ridge Road or Clearwater-Largo Road. But renaming a major road would require state and, in some cases, county permission, and city officials decided it wasn't practical.
Largo remains one of the few cities in Pinellas County without a King street.
Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, Safety Harbor and, most recently, Dunedin have named streets after King.
